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Post by dem bones on Dec 6, 2019 17:52:00 GMT
Judith Bauer Stamper - Tales for the Midnight Hour (Scholastic, 1977) The Furry Collar The Black Velvet Ribbon The Boarder The Ten Claws The Jigsaw Puzzle The Face The Mirror The Egyptian Coffin The Old Plantation Phobia The Train Through Transylvania The Attic Door The Tunnel of Terror The Fortune Teller The Stuffed Dog A Free Place To Sleep The Gooney Birds Blurb: These seventeen stories are guaranteed to keep you awake and shivering with fear. We dare you to read them alone, late at night. The moon is full. The clock strikes twelve. Don't be afraid. But what's that sound? Footsteps in the hall? It's just the dog. That creaking door? Merely the wind blowing. And is that a face at the window? Or is it just your imagination? Read these stories at your own risk . . . but be prepared to be scared out of your wits.The Furry Collar: Sleepover at Susan's house, the young hostess modelling her Christmas present, a red velvet night-robe with furry collar. The two girls are alone in the house - or so they think. A scraping noise downstairs. Susan gamely investigates ... and doesn't return. Her young friend is now very frightened. Footsteps approaching. The door creaks open..... Reminiscent of the story in Ivor Pelham Morley's peerless Tales Of Terror For Tiny Tots that drove The Gentleman from America over the edge. The Black Velvet Ribbon: "Don't you ever take that ribbon from around your neck?" he asked, hoping his question was a needless one. "You'll be sorry if I do," his wife answered, "so I won't."Four weeks into their marriage, the ever-present black band is driving him bats. As mystery bride sleeps, he takes out a scissors and ... The Egyptian Coffin : A night-watchman at the British Museum who despises his rotten job takes to defacing the exhibits. Tonight he's been transferred to the Egyptian room. Takheb, the Princess, is not one to stand any nonsense, and when security guy abuses her mummified son, she summons Sebek to learn the slob the error of his ways.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 7, 2019 14:03:51 GMT
The Boarder: The boy, convinced the despised, rich lodger at his house is up to no good, resolves to follow him when he sneaks out across the roof on Friday nights. Just as he suspected, the fellow is a cat burglar, gaining access to High Street stores via their chimneys. The boy puts a permanent stop to his mischief.
The Ten Claws: Brothers Robert and John Harmon take up their machetes and rifles to hunt down the monster responsible for the deaths of several pet dogs, sheep, a calf and - not quite so serious - Elmer Riley, the town drunk. Senile old granny is less than enthralled by their community spirit. To all intents and purposes, a rewrite of The Severed Arm: or, The Wehr-wolf of Limousin.
The Jigsaw Puzzle: Lisa buys it from a junk shop - proprietor Mr. Tuborg can't remember having set eyes on it before in his life. 500 pieces. The manufacturers guarantee 'THE STRANGEST JIGSAW PUZZLE IN THE WORLD' As she slots together the pieces and the picture takes shape, Lisa has an uneasy feeling that she should have left the puzzle well alone.
Tunnel of Terror: School pals Ellen, Jane and Diane attend the Ohio State Summer Fair. Ellen, the daredevil of the trio, takes a solo boat trip through a particularly gruesome chamber of horrors on the canal. An announcement over the fairground tannoy gives her something to scream about.
Hit and miss horrors, The Furry Collar and The Jigsaw Puzzle have been the most effective to date.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 8, 2019 17:38:22 GMT
A Free Place To Sleep : The Nameless Monster of no. 50 Berkeley Square, now operating as an amorphous green blob - re-enacts its most celebrated performance, with American students Dave Moore and Tom Dodd standing in for the luckless sailors. Phobia: Ellen, who has a morbid fear of rodents, takes a short cut home through the park after dark. The Face : California, 1849. Three prospectors fall foul of the disembodied phantom head of a death-breathing hag! The Train Through Transylvania : Mrs Archer and the children are travelling through Romania to meet Dad. Robert is tormenting his sister Stephanie by reading aloud from Dracula. A frail elderly doctor enters the compartment, followed by a tall, pale gentleman with blood-red lips .....
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Post by ripper on Dec 8, 2019 20:07:29 GMT
As the name suggests, weren't Scholastic books only available from school book clubs? I can remember my cousin having some he got from his school in the late 70s which he let me read, but I don't think we had them at our school.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 9, 2019 11:54:50 GMT
As the name suggests, weren't Scholastic books only available from school book clubs? I can remember my cousin having some he got from his school in the late 70s which he let me read, but I don't think we had them at our school. All I know about Scholastic is that their Point Horror books show up an awful lot in the Charity Shops and market stalls I frequent. Presumably their titles are published in vast quantities? Seems like there were four volumes of Tales ..., all written by J. B. Stamper. At times this, the first, reads like the result of someone feeding a number of horror standards through a blender. The Mirror: Lonesome accountant Hugo Hoogan wakes one morning to find the gloating face of A. N. Other reflected back at him from the glass. The Stuffed Dog: Mr. Heathcote's boxer died on the same day as his master - and in equally mysterious circumstances. Mrs. H rewards the faithful growler by taking him to a taxidermist. The stuffed dog gives her grandson, Don't-call-me-Teddy, the creeps, as well it might. The Fortune Teller: Mr. Peebles' wife, who is fifteen years his junior, persuades him to visit Madame X in case there are some nasty surprises awaiting him in the not too distant. What he learns from the formidable lady with the crystal ball decides him to take out a massive life insurance policy so that young Mrs. P. will be well provided for in the event of his death.
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Post by cauldronbrewer on Dec 9, 2019 15:13:13 GMT
As the name suggests, weren't Scholastic books only available from school book clubs? I can remember my cousin having some he got from his school in the late 70s which he let me read, but I don't think we had them at our school. From what I gather, Scholastic originally distributed their books through school fairs and clubs. Back in the late 1970s my brother bought the Scholastic edition of C.B. Colby's Strangely Enough at a book fair, and we read that copy to pieces. Now, however, Scholastic distributes their books everywhere--stores and online, in addition to the clubs and fairs. They're the U.S. publisher of the Harry Potter series, the Hunger Games series, Goosebumps, and a substantial percentage of the books and graphic novels on my kids' shelves, so they must be raking in the money these days.
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Post by ripper on Dec 9, 2019 15:45:14 GMT
All the Scholastic books I saw in the 70s were, I think, printed in the USA. My cousin had a volume of 'true' mysteries that impressed me mightily at the time, plus a curious book with a mixture of hippyish poems, mildly psychedelic illustrations and 'profound' sayings. He may have had one of these spooky anthologies, but it is too hazy for me to be sure. At the time, being American, the Scholastic titles seemed rather exotic and almost objects of curiosity to someone whose reading material was otherwise 100% UK published.
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Post by helrunar on Dec 9, 2019 17:47:26 GMT
At my school in Maryland, around the time of the late Sixties and early Seventies, we'd have a "book fair" day. It was always an eagerly anticipated moment of tremendous excitement because I was, as Edward Eager would have said, a "bookish" child and continued to be a bookish teen. What I recall is that the fair was mainly a marketing event for Scholastic. One could browse the books and then fill out a form to order the titles one wanted. I think an edition of Lovecraft's "Shadow over Innsmouth" printed as a single volume paperback with large print may have been a thrilling discovery at one of these. The cover had torn when last I saw that book. I may have thrown it away--I honestly can't recall now. If I thought about it a while, I could remember some other titles. There was a book about the 50 most important films shown on television but frustratingly, some of the films never aired during the years when I had the book and kept looking. I'm pretty sure Fahrenheit 451 was one of those films. I've still never been able to see it to this day. Just the idea of that movie may have given me a couple of nightmares.
I don't know if Scholastic distributed over in the UK, or if you find these in various odd corners because of American children bringing them over and then the books getting discarded when the parents have to return to the US.
cheers, H.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Dec 9, 2019 18:47:52 GMT
you find these in various odd corners because of American children bringing them over Only one child. His name is Tom.
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Post by ripper on Dec 9, 2019 21:21:25 GMT
At my school in Maryland, around the time of the late Sixties and early Seventies, we'd have a "book fair" day. It was always an eagerly anticipated moment of tremendous excitement because I was, as Edward Eager would have said, a "bookish" child and continued to be a bookish teen. What I recall is that the fair was mainly a marketing event for Scholastic. One could browse the books and then fill out a form to order the titles one wanted. I think an edition of Lovecraft's "Shadow over Innsmouth" printed as a single volume paperback with large print may have been a thrilling discovery at one of these. The cover had torn when last I saw that book. I may have thrown it away--I honestly can't recall now. If I thought about it a while, I could remember some other titles. There was a book about the 50 most important films shown on television but frustratingly, some of the films never aired during the years when I had the book and kept looking. I'm pretty sure Fahrenheit 451 was one of those films. I've still never been able to see it to this day. Just the idea of that movie may have given me a couple of nightmares. I don't know if Scholastic distributed over in the UK, or if you find these in various odd corners because of American children bringing them over and then the books getting discarded when the parents have to return to the US. cheers, H. We didn't have any book fairs at my school in the 70s. Now my cousin's school was about 1.5 miles from mine and they did there. I think it was as you described from what my cousin told me, with an order form being filled out. The Scholastic titles were at the book fair for ordering. I would imagine that American kids, maybe here as their dad was deployed here, would bring Scholastic titles with them or maybe they were available to them via the PX or child equivalent on USAF/RAF bases, but those sold to UK kids were, I believe, imported from the US and sold at school fairs. I don't recall seeing any for sale in the shops back then.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 11, 2019 6:17:41 GMT
The tagline at foot of the title page of this 1977 edition reads: SCHOLASTIC INC. New York Toronto London Auckland Sydney so seems they were distributed over here, though can't recall seeing any during school years. Last three. The Attic Room: 16-year-old Rosalyn comes to stay with scatty Aunt Harriet, recently bereaved of both husband and teenage son, Herman. The late Arthur was a "great" - if controversial - scientist working in the field of human-ape mutations. Aunt Harriet gives Rosalyn the run of the house save for the room in the attic, which she is forbidden to enter under any circumstances. The Old Plantation: Jonas Ellerby, lawyer, spends a night in the soon to be demolished old plantation house of the "strange reputation." He finds .... an old book. The Gooney Birds: Bullying team leader Jake leads his five teenage charges on a canoe trip through the wilderness. Eric, keen to impress the gormless guide, callously destroys two massive birds eggs with a stick. The mother gooney subsequently stalks the group along the lake. Presently they arrive at an eerily deserted camp. What could possibly have driven a party to abandon all their supplies?
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Post by ripper on Dec 11, 2019 11:05:13 GMT
The tagline at foot of the title page of this 1977 edition reads: SCHOLASTIC INC. New York Toronto London Auckland Sydney so seems they were distributed over here, though can't recall seeing any during school years. Last three. The Attic Room: 16-year-old Rosalyn comes to stay with scatty Aunt Harriet, recently bereaved of both husband and teenage son, Herman. The late Arthur was a "great" - if controversial - scientist working in the field of human-ape mutations. Aunt Harriet gives Rosalyn the run of the house save for the room in the attic, which she is forbidden to enter under any circumstances. The Old Plantation: Jonas Ellerby, lawyer, spends a night in the soon to be demolished old plantation house of the "strange reputation." He finds .... an old book. The Gooney Birds: Bullying team leader Jake leads his five teenage charges on a canoe trip through the wilderness. Eric, keen to impress the gormless guide, callously destroys two massive birds eggs with a stick. The mother gooney subsequently stalks the group along the lake. Presently they arrive at an eerily deserted camp. What could possibly have driven a party to abandon all their supplies? I believe Scholastic sold books in quite a few countries around the world, but I always thought it was exclusively via school fairs. I have no memory of seeing them for general sale in bookshops, though perhaps they would have been available to order, even if they weren't on the shelves. Just a thought, Dem, but in the volume you are reading has the spelling of words been anglicised? I mean, colour or color etc?
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Post by dem bones on Mar 25, 2021 19:30:53 GMT
J. B. Stamper - Still More Tales of the Midnight Hour (Apple/ Scholastic, Oct. 1989) Cemetery Road The Wax Museum Tailypo Words of Warning The Ghost’s Revenge A Special Treat The Magic Vanishing Box Wait Till Max Comes The Old Beggar Woman The Masked Ball Skin-and-Bones The Snake Charmer The Snipe HuntBlurb: THIRTEEN CHILLING TALES The room is dark and silent. Through the window the full moon shimmers in the fog. Could that be someone ...or something moving against your window pane? Or is it just a shadow? Suddenly a chill runs down your spine and you wish you weren’t alone. The clock sounds the stroke of midnight. It's time for Still More Tales for the Midnight Hour. Thirteen tales of horror that will make you turn pale with fear. Beware...the grip of terror tightens with every page.Cemetery Road: The statue of a black cat sits atop a marble tomb in the middle of the boneyard. The class dare the new girl to pay a midnight visit and steal the leather collar from around it's neck. The Wax Museum: A school trip to the chamber of horrors. Robbie, the class troublemaker, conceals himself behind a curtain at closing time, determined to steal the ring from Henry VIII's finger. The exhibits, including a furious Adolph Hitler, gang up on him. The following morning, Ann Boleyn has gone AWOL and the waxwork has acquired a new attraction.
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Post by dem bones on Mar 26, 2021 11:57:49 GMT
Tailypo: When a hungry mountain man severs the tail of a strange creature during a tussle, he does what comes natural and cooks it to eat, even feeds some to his three dogs.
Words of Warning: Greenfield, New England. An old man makes a point of cautioning young Peter against wandering near an abandoned house in the wood, five children having vanished there in the past five years. So why doesn't he warn the other new arrivals in town to do the same?
The Ghost's Revenge: Set during the Civil War. Lieutenant William Compton extracts a promise from ambitious beauty Lucy Potter that, should he be killed in battle, she will never marry another. Lucy reluctantly agrees having already decided that, handsome as he is, the young Confederate is too poor for her needs. Consequently, she's not too disappointed when the Yankees do for him. Now she is set to wed Captain Sanders, a far more financially appealing proposition. All is rosy until the minister utters the mandatory "If anyone has cause to stop this marriage ...."
A Special Treat: Lisa and Harry have been married a year and she wants to cook a special meal for the anniversary. Problem is, he refuses to eat red meat, his estranged Ma having forbidden him from doing so. Lisa, who can't be doing with a mother's boy, prepares a noodle surprise like no other.
The Ghost's Revenge and The Wax Museum have been pick of an uninspired selection to date.
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Post by Dr Strange on Mar 26, 2021 12:30:43 GMT
I have come across the "Tailypo" story before somewhere - it's an old Appalachian folktale. There's an even older British version ("Teeny-Tiny") that has a woman finding a bone in a graveyard... which she takes home to make some soup with!
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